“I though everyone played really well. Obviously, there are things we can work on, but we were very pleased with the effort that we received—especially Tiera (Stephen). She showed that she can do a lot out there when she’s locked in, and I think she has that in her. She’s always had that in her, and we were just waiting for her to bring it out, and this was a good time to do it. Taylor (Wurtz) is always steady, Morgan (Paige) is always steady, and we’ll bring others along. It was a total team effort, a great game for our program and team.”

On whether her playing more people than usual today is a sign of things to come:“Not necessarily. We do it on a game-by-game basis. The other team dictates some of what we have to do and want to do, and some of what we don’t want to do. Some people are more ready than others. Some are not ready for the pressure that we’re going to see. We like our veterans to lead the way—Tiera and Taylor, Morgan. We try to get Nicole (Bauman) in there a little bit, and get Dakota (Whyte) in there because we’re going to need them down the stretch too. I though guard play was good for us and they were small, so we had to go small too.”

On she made a point of telling the team to dictate the pace of the game:“No, they set their own tone. These players understand what it takes to win. When you have a lot of young kids, and half the team is young and half the team is old, the old ones can’t play the whole game, so when you mix in some of the young ones, they don’t quite know yet where to go. You see them like deer in the headlights sometimes, but it will come with time. We changed up our defense just a little bit, and that helped us get some steals and deflections.”

On whether their tough defense was what allowed the Badgers to pull away:“I think so. (The defense got us) some easy baskets, some layups. That’s what you want; it takes the pressure off you. Then they pressed us a little bit, and we broke it almost every time. That’s helpful, because then you don’t have to run an offense, you just make two passes and get a layup. I wish they had done it the whole game, because we seemed to be scoring when they were in that defense.”

On how UW was able to gain the edge on the offensive boards and second-chance points:“Just by being aggressive. We were on the other end of that (the rebounding and second-chance points battle) the other night, where Washington had quite a few offensive boards, and it takes the wind out of you. You play defense for 17 seconds, and a shot goes up, and then you give them 30 more seconds. That’s when you end up fouling. We try to limit teams to one shot, and we’re still working on our boxing out, but I think second-chance points pretty much tell the story, because, again, you end up probably fouling or ending up giving up an easier basket when you don’t box out the first time.” On today’s balanced scoring attack:“I think that goes to them understanding that if they’re not open, to hit the open man and not to waste a lot of time trying to dribble and create something that isn’t there. Evansville played the pack defense, where they force you to the middle, so again, we had to adjust to them and make the extra pass. Like Tiera said, when Morgan drove and she floated to the corner, then you force that one guard to either help or to go to the corner. I thought the kids did a good job adjusting to (Evansville’s defense).”

On limiting their turnovers to 12, and the effect it had on the final score:“You never want to give the other team an opportunity to get an easy basket. Some of the turnovers are up high, and there’s no one back. So we try to not dribble too much. Dribbling affects your turnovers, especially when you’re not as confident as you want to be. Depending on the pressure on the ball, we try to pass and cut. Then you’re just making passes and people just have to pick it up and get a layup. I’m trying to stress to them that overdribbling is the easiest way to turn it over—especially against Virginia Tech coming up. They have a lot of kids that can pressure the ball. We’re going to have to pass and cut, and make them have to guard the back door.”

On whether the job of limiting turnovers falls on her point guards’ shoulders:“It’s not just Tiera’s job. Obviously she comes down and gets us in the offense, but she gets tired too. We can’t play her the whole game. She has played probably more time than she ever has in her life, but she’s in shape. She’s much better conditioned than she was last year, and that’s allowed her to play these large amount of minutes. She didn’t tug on her shirt—that’s the sign for ‘take me out, I’ve had enough, I can’t do it’—this game, so I’m proud of her. She’s come a long way.”

On her lineup that included Dakota Whyte and Tiera Stephen on the court together:“Dakota is a little bit different, because she’s a freshman. I have to give her more plays, whereas with Tiera I’ll just let her call it. That’s senior leadership. You don’t have to worry about ‘are they going to be able to run something out here’. If I don’t give (the play) to her, she’ll just call it. We’re working with Dakota to get her there.”